Thursday, January 24, 2008

I think I need exercise, but then again, every time I get some I feel like I've gone a dozen rounds. And lost against King Kong.

Honestly, with a son who's obsessed with bowling (when he's not obsessed with Star Wars, or the Polar Express, or tornadoes, or Jimmy Neutron), there's nothing a person can do to avoid being trapped in the bowling center for hours at a stretch. The place has a three-hour "all you can bowl" special on weekdays and holidays, and we have to bowl until the final minute of our time expires. Then, more often than not, we're dragooned into a re-enactment of the Duel of the Fates when we get home, so there's no rest for the weak-kneed.

One might think that all that exertion would add up to a bit of weight loss. But noooooo.

Somewhere, somehow, I need to come up with a plan for introducing exercise into my day. Something that actually works, that makes me feel better and not worse, that can be done relatively quickly and without having to shower and change a half-dozen times a day.

There's got to be a way to shove the wedge into the wall, to break through all this difficulty and get it done. Pardon me while I hunt for cracks. Keep yours to yourself.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Well, I accidentally got on the scale a couple of days ago and get this--I weighed exactly what I weighed when I first started this blog. Sigh.

I suppose in a way that's not too bad, considering the holidays were one long and joyful food-fest and the month of January has evidently been chosen by my body as the time for one loooong period, with all the concomitant hormone fluctuations, emotional disorders, bloatedness, and chocolate cravings. C'mon, menopause.

One of my favorite bloggers has started a 30-day raw food diet (DH asked, "So how's the raw chicken working for him?") and I admire and envy his self-discipline. All veggies and fruits, nothing processed at all--except for juicing--so even though he's usually a vegan a large portion of his diet has been curtailed. I think it sounds dreadful.

Dreadful on the tongue, that is. I can imagine how good it must feel to his body. I am still trying to get my head into the place where I can cut out the truly unnecessary food items from my diet, and my head is stubbornly still stuck in the self-indulgence zone.

So, I downloaded the free EFT manual. EFT istands for "Emotional Freedom Techniques" and it's a system of affirmations and an accupressure-like series of taps that is supposed to help a person overcome all kinds of conditions. www.emofree.com, if you're interested.

I actually tried it out on DS yesterday. He's been terrified to put his face in the water, which has thrown a major roadblock in the way of progress in his swimming lessons. But I tapped on him in the prescribed places, and whispered, "Even though I am afraid to put my face in the water, I'm still an awesome kid," over and over.

Amazingly, it worked--he did it! He was a lot braver this time around, got his hair wet and managed to get wet up to the eyebrows. I mean, he's not Flipper or anything yet, but it's a big stride forward.

So maybe I'll try the EFT on me, trying to get my head in the right place for both exercise and diet. I'd really like to cut down on our meat intake, eliminate the sugars and desserts, and introduce a morning exercise program. heck, the EFT doesn't hurt, and since I'm here in the basement it's not like anyone will notice me acting silly.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Well, although this blog is ambitiously named, it doesn't appear that I've taken anything off so far. Not weight, anyway.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I've gained weight over the holidays. I'm so depressed about it. But not,you understand, depressed enough to actually do something about it.

The most I've done is to pull "8 Minutes in the Morning" off a shelf and look at it. I thought it would be great--a combination of an early-morning start plus a diet. But so far I haven't managed to get up at the normal time, much less 8 minutes earlier. This morning I groaned, "Just let me sleep a little longer!"

I feel like I slept on cement rubble. My shoulders ache, my head feels like it got glued onto my neck crooked, and my back cracks and pops every time I move.

Okay, let's make tomorrow the starting day of the new year. Today I'll go get some olive oil and flaxseed oil (essential parts of the diet, it seems). Tomorrow, I'll get up when DH does, do the 8 minutes of exercise, and take it from there.